The South African government should address issues of unemployment as a priority when Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana presents his budget statement in Parliament in Cape Town on Wednesday afternoon, one the country’s biggest trade unions has said.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said Godongwana should present his turnaround plan for state-owned companies, and reverse budget cuts to the work of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), the workers’ mediator body.
“We were disappointed to hear President (Cyril Ramaphosa) talk about the presidential employment programme (during the State of the Nation’s Address), with only a target of only one million jobs,” Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said.
“We are hoping this can be doubled to two million jobs. We would also like to hear about the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), as they are leading in destroying jobs in the country,” Pamla added.
He noted that state firms were not only failing to pay their own employees, but they were also are unable to pay their providers.
“We hope the minister will present something on how to fund these SOEs — and turn them around. We also are hoping they will reverse the devastating cuts to the CCMA’s budget,” Pamla said.
However, tax experts said Godongwana was not likely to make any major pronouncements on taxes in his 2022 Budget Statement on Wednesday.
The tax experts said they “expected very little to no changes in personal income taxes” during Godongwana’s budget speech, amid threats of protests from the third party, the militant Economic Freedom Fighters, and the South African Federation of Trade Unions, Cosatu’s counterparts.
NM/jn/APA